NRL General Discussion Thread

[CaptainHook]

If anyone is interested more in how the game is run there is a pretty good book that has recently been released.

Needless to say, Rugby League is a tough nut to crack and get right - regardless of the administration at any given time.

Mainly because of its innate dysfunction - we did break away from Rugby Union.

We need an enemy to fight. We don't do peace times very well. It now manifests itself in a game that continually shoots itself in the foot and is riven by childish, petty in-fighting between various parties.

This will go on for all eternity.

The Commission We Had To Have by David Trodden sheds some light on this.

Here is the description:

"Rugby league fans love their game, their heroes and their teams. Many know that the NRL is now managed by an independent 'Australian Rugby League Commission'. But while they regularly disagree with the commission's decisions, they have little idea how it operates and even why it was established. This book sets those contradictions straight.

As a lifetime fan, student of league history, lawyer and prominent administrator on the Australian Rugby League board that made the revolutionary decision to create the Commission in 2012 and NSW Rugby League CEO David Trodden is uniquely placed to describe the process that led to the game's new governance structure and to analyse its progress.

Once predominantly working-class, rugby league has become a sporting powerhouse, a producer of heroes from Dally Messenger to Johnathan Thurston, and survivor of courtroom battles, endless controversies and the Super League War. In charting this evolution, Trodden confronts a question now facing those in charge of all major professional sports: is our game a sport or a business, or something in between? The answer has huge implications, not just at the elite level but also for the 'grassroots'.

The Commission We Had To Have is essential reading for all NRL fans who are wondering what has happened to their game. Where would league be without its current structure? Where might it be heading? Can other sports learn from the rugby league experience?"

I'm about a third of the way through it. Fascinating stuff.

 

[Sproj]

No administration is essentially that hard to get right:

1. Professionalism from the top down
2. Consistent standards set and enforced from top down
3. Be as transparent as possible and avoid the appearance of favouritism

There are other important steps sure, but essentially if you get those three things right, you will be fine.

 

[The Strapper]

I might have a read but since this guy was CEO of the NSW there is a chance he is inherently biased at least as far as issues concerning QRL, Broncos etc.

 

[Foordy]

No administration is essentially that hard to get right:

1. Professionalism from the top down
2. Consistent standards set and enforced from top down
3. Be as transparent as possible and avoid the appearance of favouritism

There are other important steps sure, but essentially if you get those three things right, you will be fine.

So the NRL are 0 from 3

 

[tommy]

Again mate, it's exceptional circumstances. Probably never to be repeated. Lighten up a bit.

I get what you're saying but it's not really a working class game anymore. The only reason the NRL can afford extravagant gifts such as these is because of billion dollar television deals and other things like that.

At the very least, it's no longer reflective or representative of a working class game.

Most rugby league players live at Coogee and Cronulla.

The NRL and the ARLC would like nothing more than to shed the game's working class image.

In the past, this image wasn't helped by on-field brawling and off-field shenanigans.

Outlawing punching and the no-fault stand down policy are the NRL's attempts to make the game more palatable to a wider audience - that will keep the cash registers ringing.

15grand. 15 fucking grand. If you want to thank her go right ahead, bake her a cake and sing for she's a jolly good fellow. But 15grand, nah I'm not ok with that.

 

[Harry Sack]

"Please don't take my job Cameron"
~ Todd Greenburg 2019

 

[Morkel]

"Please don't take my job Cameron"
~ Todd Greenburg 2019

He’s already running the fucking game, Greenturd just wants to keep the title & wage.

 

[Allo]

Just to pose it a different way for @CaptainHook, 15k is one half of Origin. Smith has played over 40. He can buy his own wife almost 100 fucking diamond rings just with his Origin earnings.

 

[tommy]

Righto, so the Melbourne Storm don’t practice jiu-jitsu. Fair enough, nothing to see here, play on, six again.
For more than a decade now the Storm’s jiu-jitsu training sessions have been shrouded in mystery and guarded with intelligence-agency like secrecy.

What’s the first rule of Fight Club? Never talk about Fight Club.

It’s the same with the Storm’s dark arts training techniques coached by MMA guru John Donehue at his Notting Hill dojo in Melbourne.

Former members of the Storm family are instructed not to talk about what happens inside the walls of the mixed martial arts compound.


Speak out of school and you’ll exiled from the club. Forever.

How do we know this? Because I’ve written columns about what goes on at training inside the walls of Melbourne’s AAMI Park headquarters and witnessed the wrath of the Storm football department in full flight.

From spinning the annual Sydney conspiracy theories line to referencing Kylie Minogue or Taylor Swift, probably the most vicious element of the witch hunt that follows is Melbourne trying to figure out who’s broken ranks and talked out of school.

Two years ago I wrote a column taking fans inside Donohue’s Melbourne dojo where the brutal Storm training technique “shark bait” was laid bare.

Because the angle of the yarn was complimentary, there wasn’t an ensuing witch hunt.

But the Storm still did their due diligence to try and figure out who had talked.

Go back to 2008 when the grapple tackle, chicken wing, rolling pin and all the MMA defensive techniques were in full swing and you get the best example of what happens if you break ranks against the Storm.

I got a fringe Storm NRL player called Brett “Bumper” O’Farrell on the record about the lengths the Storm went to at training to employ the mixed martial arts techniques into the NRL.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy predictably blew a gasket and labelled O’Farrell’s claims “a load of crap”.

O’Farrell has since been exiled from the club, completely airbrushed from their history.

No longer invited to Old Boys Day, no longer welcome at any Storm function.

Not so long ago Storm champion Robbie Kearns accidentally threw him a bait to a Storm event. When O’Farrell questioned whether it had been cleared by Bellamy, Kearns told him it hadn’t and it was a loose carry from him that he’d sent it. Sorry mate, you’re still out was the message.

This is a tough column to write. Storm director of football Frank Ponissi is one of the best people I’ve met in more than 15 years covering rugby league and Bellamy is Australia’s version of champion NFL coach Bill Belichick.

The Storm are the benchmark sporting club in Australia. Premierships in 2012 and 2017 will attest to that, as will the fact under Bellamy the only year they’ve missed the finals was when they got kicked out for salary cap rorting.

No one is suggesting mixed martial arts isn’t a completely legitimate sport. It’s a great form of exercise, self-defence and discipline.

But does it belong in rugby league? That’s the debate.

Here’s an idea to stop the Storm’s annual blow-up about the Hume Highway conspiracy theories aimed at bringing them down. Let’s throw open the doors and we’ll bring the cameras in and show everyone exactly what goes on inside Donehue’s dojo.

And not just the friendly PR-piece where it’s all just smoke and mirrors for the cameras.

But the full blown “shark bait” training sessions.

If the Storm are willing, we’ll happily come and show fans what really goes on in there.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...g/news-story/096fd0e2f008286573d13dcf18731cf4

 

[Unbreakable]

Nathan Brown sacked by the Knights, will see out the remainder of the season.

 

[jarro65]

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Nathan Brown sacked by the Knights, will see out the remainder of the season.

There’s a joke about thinking with his big head in there somewhere.

 

[Sproj]

Nathan Brown sacked by the Knights, will see out the remainder of the season.

The Mole, nailing it again. In fact, is that the quickest proof of being wrong ever?

 

[Super Freak]

Mutually agreeing to part ways.

It's a nicer way of saying get out. You either leave or we'll force you by sacking you.

 

[Dexter]

Get ready for Fittler to really increase the bitching about Melbournes ruck tactics leading into the semis.
He will make sure the Roosters get a fair shake when they meet the Storm but they're not far behind with their tactics.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...g/news-story/096fd0e2f008286573d13dcf18731cf4

Wow I knew Fittler was gunning for Melb through his media duties but I didn't know it was going to be a concerted effort from Sydney. That is about the 7th story since I posted how Fittler was bitching about it. Seems it was the start of a big push to make sure Melb can't win.

I know many on here can't stomach Melb in any way but I have a far greater hate for all things Sydney and this is another example.

 

[Dexter]

I wonder if Saint merge will be silly enough to revisit Brown.

 

[Big Pete]

Wow I knew Fittler was gunning for Melb through his media duties but I didn't know it was going to be a concerted effort from Sydney. That is about the 7th story since I posted how Fittler was bitching about it. Seems it was the start of a big push to make sure Melb can't win.

I know many on here can't stomach Melb in any way but I have a far greater hate for all things Sydney and this is another example.

I could understand the outrage over the Asofa-Solomona crusher and Kamikamica bumper. This story surrounding Cameron Smith and the jersey pull is ridiculous. It's just another way for the journalists to string the story along and feed into the public's insecurities surrounding Melbourne.

The issue is by carrying on in the fashion that they are, they're taking attention away from those valid issues.

 

[Huge]

Mutually agreeing to part ways.

It's a nicer way of saying get out. You either leave or we'll force you by sacking you.

I'd rather be sacked. If I were Boyd I'd stay and fight on. I'd happily plod around in ISC getting 600k a year and training twice a week, sweet. Yes, I'd say '**** em' and demand full coin. The reason why is simple.

No one would care in a years time if I voluntarily walked, nobody would remember that I took one for the team. The Broncos are an idea, a concept. It has no life of it's own, no soul if you like, it's made up of people and no one would remember my sacrifice. In 20 years time, when he's in his very fifties there won't be anyone who cares, let alone remembers.